Football To Be Behind Closed Doors From Monday

19 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I realize these are very challenging unprecedented times but I think politicians have more than one eye on the economy rather than the welfare of the general public as do the AFL and NRL.

As do I. We also have to remember that the people making decisions are wealthy and have access to good medical.

All registered players would've just received an email today from the FFA like the one I got that said: "After careful consideration and consistent with advice from the Federal Government, FFA advises that football may continue to be played across Australia at this time. We encourage you to read the full circular and take note of the guidelines."

Their guidelines can be found here: https://www.ffa.com.au/news/ffas-covid-19-guidelines-football?utm_source=&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_term=1327762

The guidelines talk about "social distancing" - maintaining a minimum of 1.5 metres between yourself and others.

This will be the perfect excuse for some of the defenders in my team, who have been practising this for years, never marking their attackers properly.

It'll be interesting to see if they change their position on grassroots football if things get worse. The FA just announced that they're suspending all grassroots football in England.

1 hour ago, Davo said:

It'll be interesting to see if they change their position on grassroots football if things get worse. The FA just announced that they're suspending all grassroots football in England.

 

Australia is woefully behind the game on sport compared to rest of the world...its embarrassing.

12 hours ago, btron3000 said:

"And my feeling is, to be blunt, we're dicking around and we've just got to shut stuff down now."

feel like it’s the most prudent course of action now. I know we aren’t near the numbers in US (1.5k) or UK (4K) but with numbers expected to double every four days, our 400 infection rate is bound to get exponentially worse.

The call on schools is probably the most controversial because traditional pandemic response tells us to shut schools. However Singapore & Taiwan (or Hong Kong?) were both able to flatten the curve without shutting schools in response to covid19.

Interestingly enough, school principals in NSW have allowed the Schools as Community Centers (program for young kids pretty much) to shut for this term. It will come back 1 week after school holidays ends which is first week of May. Looks like we might not be too far off shutting schools down, at least a week earlier (if not more) before the easter break.

11 hours ago, Smoggy said:

I realize these are very challenging unprecedented times but I think politicians have more than one eye on the economy rather than the welfare of the general public as do the AFL and NRL.

NRL/AFL I’ve got less sympathy for just because of the $1b tv deal but I’ve got no doubt that they are more concerned about fulfilling broadcast deals rather than player safety. Unfortunately we have to put the FFA/AL into the same boat who have the same concerns.

I’ve got a bit more sympathy for the health officials deciding how quickly to enforce schools shutting down, public gatherings etc. It isn’t so much about our economy, more about our society as a whole. We are in uncharted waters & without any guidance on past events (in our lifetime). I think the countries who have been the best prepared were those that were most badly effected by SARS & MERS.

Apparently FNSW later today will be suspending grass roots football till mid April. Central Coast football Competition to restart end of April.

Looks like the Nix might not be coming after all, the Aus gov guidelines do not allow those in self isolation to train together 

14 minutes ago, Prydzopolis said:

Looks like the Nix might not be coming after all, the Aus gov guidelines do not allow those in self isolation to train together 

Lol making it all up as they go along i tells yer.

36 minutes ago, Prydzopolis said:

feel like it’s the most prudent course of action now. I know we aren’t near the numbers in US (1.5k) or UK (4K) but with numbers expected to double every four days, our 400 infection rate is bound to get exponentially worse.

The call on schools is probably the most controversial because traditional pandemic response tells us to shut schools. However Singapore & Taiwan (or Hong Kong?) were both able to flatten the curve without shutting schools in response to covid19.

Interestingly enough, school principals in NSW have allowed the Schools as Community Centers (program for young kids pretty much) to shut for this term. It will come back 1 week after school holidays ends which is first week of May. Looks like we might not be too far off shutting schools down, at least a week earlier (if not more) before the easter break.

The main concern with closing the schools is who looks after the kids. I read that up 30% of healthcare workers have school age children. If they need to look after their kids they can't come to work, which will stress the system even more.

As for America, they're screwed. Here's how they're responding to the virus:

2 hours ago, Prydzopolis said:

Apparently FNSW later today will be suspending grass roots football till mid April. Central Coast football Competition to restart end of April.

Any idea about NPL.?

Listening to health minister on testing kits..i will translate his language...

'We didnt perpare and dont have enough testing kits or centre's. We have ordered many more (but not enough) and will test much more after we think the peak is over thus fudging the numbers and allowing us to say how great we are in comparison to the rest of the world. In the meantime if you are sick shut the **** up and hide'....

8 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Listening to health minister on testing kits..i will translate his language...

'We didnt perpare and dont have enough testing kits or centre's. We have ordered many more (but not enough) and will test much more after we think the peak is over thus fudging the numbers and allowing us to say how great we are in comparison to the rest of the world. In the meantime if you are sick shut the **** up and hide'....

These pr**ks have cut health budgets and services but when the shyte hits the fan it's oops...sorry,didn't see that coming ....lol

"Clearwater" as the name of that beach has to be satire right?

I heard the head of the AMA the other day (things do change very quickly at the moment so this could be out of date?!).  He said that closing schools is a tough one because kids/young people with congregate somewhere - at school if its on or in public places if it isn't.  If schools are open then they can contain kids and young people pretty well.  The other aspect is that if children are home it puts more strain on other parts of the workforce because parents need to stay home to look after them and, as suggested earlier, many work in the healthcare system.  So he said they err on the side of responsibly keeping schools open and containing children, allowing parents to work and monitoring how things go.

Nix coming tomorrow, and apparently they can train together in "isolation".

17 minutes ago, mack said:

Nix coming tomorrow, and apparently they can train together in "isolation".

Fools...they actually think they can win the GF lol

2 hours ago, MadKaw said:

Any idea about NPL.?

The document/release said that FNSW would be releasing there own statement later today. I’m guessing it will apply to NPL but I assume they are discussing it at association or competition level first. Here is CCF

1 hour ago, mack said:

Nix coming tomorrow, and apparently they can train together in "isolation".

At least they can train together, I assume this goes for Victory too. I still feel that it won’t take much to change in 2 weeks before the competition gets put on hold.

4 hours ago, Prydzopolis said:

Apparently FNSW later today will be suspending grass roots football till mid April. Central Coast football Competition to restart end of April.

That's what I was hearing on Sunday

 

 

McCraig  @Wandererstragic

 

1 hour ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

I heard the head of the AMA the other day (things do change very quickly at the moment so this could be out of date?!).  He said that closing schools is a tough one because kids/young people with congregate somewhere - at school if its on or in public places if it isn't.  If schools are open then they can contain kids and young people pretty well.  The other aspect is that if children are home it puts more strain on other parts of the workforce because parents need to stay home to look after them and, as suggested earlier, many work in the healthcare system.  So he said they err on the side of responsibly keeping schools open and containing children, allowing parents to work and monitoring how things go.

I heard today that in holland (might be wrong though) they closed schools, hired casual teachers (who will be out work otherwise) to look after the kids of nurses and doctors etc at the school sites. Interesting idea.

I get the "they'll congregate elsewhere" stuff but...

Kids congregate on public transport on the way to and from. And in the shops. In our cities, kids (becacuse of our awesome school system with private/selectives) travel ******* everywhere across the city.

13 minutes ago, Taurus said:

That's what I was hearing on Sunday

 

 

McCraig  @Wandererstragic

 

If the rumours are true, all NSW NPL football including training, will cease for 3 - 4 weeks from tomorrow

7:39 PM · Mar 15, 2020·Twitter for Android

Crazy that they just released advice on late Monday that it will continue but under some restrictions.

Now reassessing position as of mid day today

One by one, all these reassessments.

"Ah, how bad can it be? I heard it's not even as bad as the flu. Give it a couple of weeks and it will be over. Storm in a teacup."

.....

"Okay shut it down."

 It's like what my mrs says about me.

"We're out of milk."

"no we're not."

(goes and checks fridge).

"Need anything else from the shops?".

This **** is getting real. Ireland has closed all of its pubs!

5 hours ago, Davo said:

The main concern with closing the schools is who looks after the kids. I read that up 30% of healthcare workers have school age children. If they need to look after their kids they can't come to work, which will stress the system even more.

As for America, they're screwed. Here's how they're responding to the virus:

 

With all respect though, this is what happens when the media are allowed to continually post blatant scare pieces and fear mongering content that sells newspapers rather than sharing objective facts and advice from trusted sources. People switch off and don’t take it seriously. 

I think the longer this whole thing goes on, people are going to become desensitised and frustrated with the situation which is going to create a rebellion of sorts. There is only so long people are going to put up with being isolated, locked up and not being able to live a normal life doing basic things. These measures being implanted worldwide are great on paper but they are only practical for 2-3, possibly 4 weeks max.

If we think that people who can’t get toilet paper are behaving poorly, wait until they can’t work and have no money or a job plus an inability to socialise, enjoy themselves or perform general leisure activities. That’s when humanity will really be tested...

2 hours ago, Prydzopolis said:

Crazy that they just released advice on late Monday that it will continue but under some restrictions.

Now reassessing position as of mid day today

Just buying time by moving the goalposts

All grassroots football put off till mid April.

Includes training.

https://www.ffa.com.au/sites/ffa/files/2020-03/20-06 FFA Circular - Suspension of grassroots football activity_1.pdf

2 hours ago, hughsey said:

With all respect though, this is what happens when the media are allowed to continually post blatant scare pieces and fear mongering content that sells newspapers rather than sharing objective facts and advice from trusted sources. People switch off and don’t take it seriously. 

I think the longer this whole thing goes on, people are going to become desensitised and frustrated with the situation which is going to create a rebellion of sorts. There is only so long people are going to put up with being isolated, locked up and not being able to live a normal life doing basic things. These measures being implanted worldwide are great on paper but they are only practical for 2-3, possibly 4 weeks max.

If we think that people who can’t get toilet paper are behaving poorly, wait until they can’t work and have no money or a job plus an inability to socialise, enjoy themselves or perform general leisure activities. That’s when humanity will really be tested...

No-one should be complacent and please take this situation seriously.

Please watch this video (less than 7 minutes) and heed the advice - I found it very informative on how COVID-19 spreads and how its impact can be minimised if we ALL do our part:

2 hours ago, hughsey said:

With all respect though, this is what happens when the media are allowed to continually post blatant scare pieces and fear mongering content that sells newspapers rather than sharing objective facts and advice from trusted sources. People switch off and don’t take it seriously. 

Agree and I also think that the responses in most countries show their culture. The Asian nations that have locked it down have very controlled or compliant cultures. So do we for the most part. The US, on the other hand, have this misdirected belief in their own freedom, to the point where it's pretty anarchic. Italy - bah don't worry about it...oh **** it's a disaster. New Zealand, as always, just approach things with common sense and thinking about one another and what is right and moral. The biggest surprise for me has been South America. While less affected, they have locked down transport and most stores, and are out ahead of the game. Given they are generally teetering on the verge of collapse, it's surprising how well they've responded. Or maybe it's BECAUSE they are use to teetering on the brink of collapse.

34 minutes ago, btron3000 said:

The biggest surprise for me has been South America. While less affected, they have locked down transport and most stores, and are out ahead of the game. Given they are generally teetering on the verge of collapse, it's surprising how well they've responded. Or maybe it's BECAUSE they are use to teetering on the brink of collapse.

Mate of mine lives in Colombia with his wife and kids and reckons they'll be absolutely ****ed once it takes hold due to poverty and crappy medical system. Good thing that some countries are pre-empting it.

Still think Australia is being too lax and lagging behind.

1 hour ago, Carns said:

Mate of mine lives in Colombia with his wife and kids and reckons they'll be absolutely ****ed once it takes hold due to poverty and crappy medical system. Good thing that some countries are pre-empting it.

Still think Australia is being too lax and lagging behind.

Yeah I fear for South America if it starts getting big there. The massive gap between rich and poor will almost certainly cause heaps of death in the poor communities.

I agree re: Aus.  I think the combination of our generally positive attitude and perhaps even over-compliance - in that if the Prime Minister says we can still go out and interact, then that's what we'll do - could be a problem. Some of us will almost certainly have to be told "you have to stay at home".